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Fumduck "winged" this concoction for our Valentine's Day pre-dinner cocktail. It was inspired by a lemon drop (kind of), but driven by the desire to use fresh raspberries (imported no doubt, but nice and sweet and juicy). Mrs. Duck is a huge fan of lemon and raspberry, so the mold was set and I got busy.

INGREDIENTS

2 oz vodka (Tito's) 3/4 oz blood orange amaro (Amara de Arancia - or other orange liqueur) 3/4 oz homemade raspberry syrup 3/4 oz lemon juice 8 raspberries 3 dashes Lemon bitters

INSTRUCTIONS

Muddle 5 raspberries and the raspberry syrup together in a cocktail shaker, then add the remaining liquid ingredients and fill the shaker 2/3rds with ice. Cap it, shake vigorously for 30 seconds, strain into a chilled coupe or cocktail glass, garnish with the remaining 3 raspberries and savor.

NOTES

I used the blood orange Amaro because it was handy - it added some nice herbal notes too. Substitute a good orange liquor like Cointreau, Grand Marnier or Ferand's Dry Curacao. Avoid the overly sweet Triple Sec. For the raspberry syrup, I took a half pint box of fresh raspberries, a half cup of water and probably 3-ish tablespoons of seedy homemade raspberry jam, put them in a 1 qt saucepan and simmered them over super low heat for maybe an hour. Strained the resultant syrup twice, put it in a squeeze bottle and chilled it. BIG raspberry flavor, slightly thick and just enough sweetness to balance the natural tartness of the berries. Fumducked my way to accidental deliciousness on that one - no way I'll ever be able to nail a repeat performance on this shit.

RESULTS

This was a completely accidental masterpiece: Big berry flavor, solid lemon brightness, well balanced light sweetness and great mouth feel. Definitely is the best cocktail I've ever winged in entirety. Mrs. Duck was quite pleased with it (the main goal of today's mixology experimentation), and I'll give it high marks even though it is basically a vodka sour/martini. To be entirely romantically retarded, I christened it the Heart-Throb. Mrs. Duck approved of the moniker.

5/5 Ducks - maybe 6/5 Ducks. Would drink again without hesitation! This Is Spinal Tap would approve of this rating too, though I'm fairly certain I will never be able to re-create the actual drink.

Quack

Fumduck "winged" this concoction for our Valentine's Day pre-dinner cocktail. It was inspired by a lemon drop (kind of), but driven by the desire to use fresh raspberries (imported no doubt, but nice and sweet and juicy). Mrs. Duck is a huge fan of lemon and raspberry, so the mold was set and I got busy. INGREDIENTS 2 oz vodka (Tito's) 3/4 oz blood orange amaro (Amara de Arancia - or other orange liqueur) 3/4 oz homemade raspberry syrup 3/4 oz lemon juice 8 raspberries 3 dashes Lemon bitters INSTRUCTIONS Muddle 5 raspberries and the raspberry syrup together in a cocktail shaker, then add the remaining liquid ingredients and fill the shaker 2/3rds with ice. Cap it, shake vigorously for 30 seconds, strain into a chilled coupe or cocktail glass, garnish with the remaining 3 raspberries and savor. NOTES I used the blood orange Amaro because it was handy - it added some nice herbal notes too. Substitute a good orange liquor like Cointreau, Grand Marnier or Ferand's Dry Curacao. Avoid the overly sweet Triple Sec. For the raspberry syrup, I took a half pint box of fresh raspberries, a half cup of water and probably 3-ish tablespoons of seedy homemade raspberry jam, put them in a 1 qt saucepan and simmered them over super low heat for maybe an hour. Strained the resultant syrup twice, put it in a squeeze bottle and chilled it. BIG raspberry flavor, slightly thick and just enough sweetness to balance the natural tartness of the berries. Fumducked my way to accidental deliciousness on that one - no way I'll ever be able to nail a repeat performance on this shit. RESULTS This was a completely accidental masterpiece: Big berry flavor, solid lemon brightness, well balanced light sweetness and great mouth feel. Definitely is the best cocktail I've ever winged in entirety. Mrs. Duck was quite pleased with it (the main goal of today's mixology experimentation), and I'll give it high marks even though it is basically a vodka sour/martini. To be entirely romantically retarded, I christened it the Heart-Throb. Mrs. Duck approved of the moniker. 5/5 Ducks - maybe 6/5 Ducks. Would drink again without hesitation! This Is Spinal Tap would approve of this rating too, though I'm fairly certain I will never be able to re-create the actual drink. Quack
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[–] • 1 pt

So the flavors are the important. And they have to compliment each other.

Totally agree that this is the most important part.

My main concern would be how complex the flavor of the NA product is, how sweet it is and which sweetener they use. In general Triple Sec is the mullet of the orange liqueur family - there are many better products out there

The NA products are just simple mixers along the line of sweet and sour or grenadine mixers. They definitely only bring the most prevalent notes of orange flavor so there will not be complexity at all. For well drinks they do just fine. For fancy cocktails, well better do the alcoholic liqueurs on the upper shelves. But if you're mixing for a run-of-the-mill event, NA will do just fine because the guests will be occupied with other things and simply want a decent tasting cocktail in hand while they talk mingle. I save the good stuff for close friends mostly.